The Pawlet town government is asking an environmental court judge to hold Daniel Banyai — owner of the controversial Slate Ridge firearms training facility — in contempt of court, alleging he has failed to follow orders to shut down.
“The town requests that the court promptly convene an in-person contempt hearing, so that Mr. Banyai and other witnesses may be compelled to testify before the court,” says the motion, filed by town attorney Merrill Bent.
Slate Ridge, a paramilitary training facility, is in a residential area of West Pawlet, and has been holding classes and building structures that violate the town’s bylaws.
Last month, Judge Thomas Durkin ordered that Banyai cease all paramilitary training activities and destroy some buildings and gun ranges, none of which had town permits. He also fined Banyai $46,600 and ordered him to hire a surveyor to assess the property.
“Defendant shall not conduct or permit to be conducted any school and/or firearms training-related activities on the property situated at 541 Briar Hill Road, nor host classes of any type on the property from the receipt of the order until further order by this court,” the decision reads.
Last weekend, Banyai held an event billed as a “Second Amendment picnic” on his property, much of which was captured on video by a YouTube commentator with an organization called PCP Media. The commentator, Adam McLain, interviewed Banyai and other attendees, and his footage formed the basis of some of the motion.
“There will be some firearms shooting,” McLain, the PCP media commentator, tells the camera at the beginning of the video. “The range has legally been shut down. He was legally supposed to tear everything down, but I can tell ya, ain’t nothin’ been torn down. That’s pretty awesome, that we have some very civil disobedience going on.”
While the motion states that the event itself was not a violation of the court order, it alleges Banyai and attendees engaged in activities prohibited by the court. McLain interviews vendors and the founder and spokesperson of Vermont State Militia, which was handing out T-shirts and promotional materials, a photo on the organization’s Instagram account shows.
Photos by PCP media also show participants shooting at Slate Ridge.
“Not only has Mr. Banyai failed to comply with this court’s orders relating to the surveying and deconstruction of unpermitted structures on the property, he has also intentionally used the unpermitted structures for the very purposes prohibited by the court, and has invited media to document his violations of this court’s order,” the motion reads.
The motion asks that the court impose “even more significant fines” on Banyai.
“The town seeks an order that would permit it to direct agents to complete the deconstruction efforts, with costs assessed against the landowner,” the motion says. “Finally, the town requests that the court consider holding Mr. Banyai in criminal contempt should he continue to violate existing and future orders.”
The town asked the court to raise the daily fine for noncompliance from $100 to $200 per day from March 6, when the order was issued, until Banyai complies.
Banyai may appeal the court’s order, the court has given him until May 5 to do so. He has also requested additional clarity about surveying requirements.
Despite these actions, “he has not made any good faith efforts to comply with any aspect of the order,” the motion said.
Meanwhile, Banyai recently applied for a permit for what appears to be an existing, unpermitted schoolhouse, which the court had ordered him to dismantle. A zoning administrator said Banyai is allowed to apply for a new permit for a building that is not a schoolhouse, but neighbors appealed that finding last week.
Banyai hasn’t yet responded to that appeal, and now the Development Review Board has 60 days from April 14 to grant or deny the permit.
Continued doxxing
While Slate Ridge’s Facebook page is no longer active, Banyai’s rhetoric has escalated on other platforms.
On Slate Ridge’s Instagram page, Banyai has continued doxxing — the practice of posting identifying information — people who have caused trouble for the training center. In recent weeks, he’s posted photos of a local reporter, a neighbor, Merrill Bent, and three separate photos of a social worker in Bennington, including disparaging comments about her weight.
Beneath a photo of Darren Marcy, editor at the Manchester Journal, who has written a number of stories about Slate Ridge, a commenter tagged the journalist and wrote, “your a two faced scumbag. You will meet KARMA!” To which Banyai responded, “yeah we talk about that in person,” then, “hopefully sooner than later.”
On April 14, Banyai posted to Twitter: “Slate Ridge is hiring a sniper. Please apply within. Need to be in the double digits.”
A Slate Ridge neighbor, Mandy Hulett, obtained a legal stalking order against Banyai after a judge reviewed what he’d written about her and ruled that “any reasonable person would interpret the overall message as threatening to cause physical harm to Hulett and her family. Banyai certainly knew or should have known this.”
